Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Project

OBJECTIVE

5W Public Relations was hand-picked by the Washington, DC Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project to lead an aggressive PR campaign to drive awareness and fundraising for the proposed $100 million memorial for Martin Luther King, Jr., the first memorial dedicated to a person of color on the National Mall.

STRATEGY

We launched targeted, national pre-event coverage campaign for The Ceremonial Groundbreaking, which was held in Washington, DC. For this once-in-a-lifetime experience, 5W was the media liaison with the offices of former President George W. Bush, former President Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Maya Angelou, Sen. Barack Obama, Tommy Hilfiger, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Ambassador Andrew Young, Diane Sawyer, Nelson Mandela, and other notable people.

RESULT

More than 5,000 supporters attended the groundbreaking, which was the collaboration of the Foundation, various corporate donors such as General Motors, The Coca-Cola Foundation, McDonald's, AARP, Lehman Brothers, and others. 5W secured coverage with the Associated Press, USA Today, CBS World News Tonight with Charles Gibson, NPR, Tom Joyner Morning Show, Good Morning America, and many other top tier media outlets.